ALYAN
5 years ago
The man smiles and extends his hand towards me. "Hi Alyan. I've heard so much about you. Good to put a face to the name. I'm Yaqtan." I shake his hand with a smile plastered on my face and escape plans running through my mind. Before I answer, he diverts his attention to uncle, who has some important matter to discuss.
Everything around me is a chaos. I sit there dumbfounded, as I listen to the clattering of spoons and the laughter.
There are steaming cups of tea being passed around. Yaqtan passes me one while talking to my uncle.
I scan the room once again, have I met these people before? I can't recall. How can she marry somebody she doesn't even know?
I take a sip of my tea trying to distract myself. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill.
Maybe they're not here for... I get pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of my aunt, "I've always wanted a son, and Allah has graced me with him in the form of a son-in-law like Yaqtan."
I can feel the ground being pulled from beneath my feet. The room spins as I replay the sentence in my head.
I try to compose myself and before I'm successful I hear a deep voice, "Are you alright? Alyan?" He asks me while reaching for something in his pocket.
He hands me a tissue, and that's when I realize the sweat on my forehead. I'm soaked in it, and I figure it's the aftermath of the shocking revelation.
I can't answer. I'm blank. What do I say? Yes, I'm ok? after what has happened to me? After you swept the girl of my dreams away from me? I can't say all that so I nod mechanically.
I look at him sitting right in front of me and think "That is the guy I lost to. The perfect guy for zahjen. What does he have that I don't? Money? Looks? Is that all it's ever about?" I clench my fists as anger boils up inside me. I just want to get away from here. The air around me is suffocating, and every breath I take seems toxic.
After spending a courteous amount of time, I get up to leave. I glance at Zahjen, one last time, before I walk out of her house, and out of her life.
The rain, constant and punishing, falls heavily on me. Every step I take soaks me further angers me further. I'm angry. Furious. But on whom? Yaqtan? Who is good enough to just take the love of my life away? Or Zahjen? For never noticing me? Or her parents for not thinking about me even when I was the one who always took care of their daughter.
I reach my apartment building, waiting to get to a place where I could just release the anger building up inside me.
I shut the door behind me and my hands start to tremble. Anger riles up inside me as I try to grasp the reality.
There's a faint ringing in my ears and my brain starts to throb. I scream in vain, not being able to control myself, and what I do next is something I've never done. I lose composure as shards of glass spread across the beige colored floor.
And so an unfamiliar feeling hits me across the face. An emptiness. A void that nobody could fill.
Zahjen. My only solace in this cut-throat world is going to be someone else's. Woefully, I look up to find a broken face staring back at me from the cracked mirror. "She is mine" I hear myself whisper.
There will always be a reason why you meet people, either they will change your life, or you're the one that will change theirs.
